Wednesday March 14, 2001

City of Brotherly Love Handles

No pot bellies in this kitchen. But these chefs aren't launching a new line in workout clothes. They just happen to live in a place where the entire city has been placed on a diet. The health and fitness craze is happening in a place you least might not expect it-- Philadelphia, "the city of blubberly love." It's the town "Men's Fitness" magazine last year labeled America's fattest.

Gwen Foster, the official health and fitness czar for the city where Rocky Balboa himself got in shape, says the local basketball team, the 76ers, inspired the name for the city's health drive: 76 tons of fun, the target she and mayor John Street want Philly residents to lose in 76 days.

"We want Philadelphia to emerge as one of the healthiest cities in the nation," Foster says, "There's somewhere between 20 and 30,000 people who've signed up already."

A local swimming club has also joined in and volunteers are signing people up on the streets of Philadelphia. Sandy Weston is the dancing chefs' trainer. "When you're around food all day long, what are you gonna do? You have to taste everything. So I help out in that part."

So the city they named cream cheese after, the city that gave us the cheese steak ... just might take a load off.